moparlit.com

Last updated 5/22

I don't normally photograph my promos this way, but I couldn't resist.  Hat's off to the guy at AMT who designed this box.  Really cool the way it displays.  I don't avidly follow '65 Barracuda promos, but it seems as though I've only seen these friction cars in light blue. 

A long-time collector pointed out something interesting to me recently.  While these are marketed as '65 Barracudas, they are really '64s.  In '64 Barracudas had the "Vailant" script on the trunklid, and this was gone for '65 (a check of factory literature confirmed this).  Sure enough, I checked and mine has the script on the trunk!  

The true promos (non-friction) came in Gold Metallic, Ruby Red, and Medium Blue Metallic.  These were actual '65 Barracudas.

1967 Barracudas are not commonly seen. The only other colors I've seen are white and red.  The chassis of the '67-69 Cuda's are pretty much the same, the only difference being that they went to dual exhaust for the '69 promo.

1968 Barracudas are not too common either.  This is a beautiful model.  Love the redline tires.  Other colors I've seen are red and green.  '68 Barracudas all came without a shifter.  Oddly there is a hole for one.  They all came in plain boxes.

1969 Barracudas aren't common either.  If you know much about the real cars, you'd know that those wheels were recalled and are extremely rare.  Very cool promo.  Blue is by far the most common.  They also came in red and bronze, both not common.

'69 GTXs are not uncommon.  Those are all of the colors available for '69.  Of note, '69 GTX's were the only Plymouth musclecar promos to come in white (with the exception of a very small number of '70 GTX Driver's Ed cars). 

This is a very cool car.  It has a blue interior and a friction motor.  I don't see many of these.  I know guys who get agitated when you refer to a friction car as a "promo".  Frankly, I prefer these to the roller chassis.  They're heavy and have different color interiors. 

I wish the traditional promos came with different color interiors.  It doesn't seem like it would have been too hard to assemble Plum Crazy Challengers and Cuda's with black or white interiors.  They would have been a bit more authentic.  I've seen these friction cars in light blue and red, and recently saw a red car with a tan interior.  I think I've seen this gray car with a red interior also.

Other 1970 Cuda colors are Blue Fire, Rallye Red, VItamin C Orange, and Lime Light.  

Of the seven purple Mopar promos (1970/1971 Challenger; 1970/1971 Charger; 1971 Duster; and 1970/1971 Cuda; ) I have four.  The finish on this one is not as good as my other three.  There are a couple of small paint imperfections on the passenger side, and one on the roof.  As you might notice from the photo, it has loose glass.  I don't have the balls to take it apart and re-glue.

So, which purple cars are the most scarce?  Since 2010 when I started tracking promo sales on Ebay, I’ve seen (as of 01/20) the following nice condition purple cars WITH BOXES sell:

3 1970 Cudas in In-Violet (Only 14 Cudas total making them quite rare in any color)

1 1971 Cuda in Ultra-Violet

0 1971 Dusters in Ultra-Violet

9 1970 Challengers in Plum Crazy

11 1971 Challengers in Plum Crazy

4 1970 Chargers in Plum Crazy

12 1971 Chargers in Plum Crazy

Granted, these are only sales of cars with boxes.  That said, based on my data the rarest would be the ’70 and ’71 Cudas, ’71 Dusters, and ’70 Chargers.  However, when one considers non-boxed cars, it seems to me as though I see lots of Challengers, Cudas, and ’71 Chargers.  Rarely do I see ’71 Dusters and ’70 Chargers- with or without boxes.  That's my take on purple Mopar promos.  Highest priority for me would be a '70 Charger.

The Bahama Yellow car came in the generic red white and blue 1970 Johan dimestore box.   Bahama Yellow ("Butterscotch" for Dodge)  is an odd color, not seen on the real cars until 1971, but I kind of like it.  Very conservative.  Like a true gentleman's musclecar should be! 

70 GTX's are not particularly rare.  The other available color was Lime Green Metallic.  The retail or "dime store" cars were also available in a non-metallic light blue (molded car-not painted). 

There are also some white cars floating around with "Drivers Education" stickers.  If you have one with the box I'd love to see it.

One of the things I find odd about the ’70 Plymouth promos are the whitewall tires.  Both the Cudas (MPC) and the GTX’s (Jo-Han) have them.  Plymouth must have specified these for all of their promos that year.  When was the last time you saw a ’70 Cuda with rally wheels and whitewalls?  And why the plain boxes?  1969 GTX's had very cool boxes.  '70 could have been as well.

I've also often wondered why Plymouth chose to make '69 and '70 GTX's instead of Roadrunners.  The Roadrunners far outsold the GTX's.

The Bahama Yellow car was my first promo, and is one of my favorites.   Unfortunately I've been unable to find a box for the Ultra Violet car.  They also came in Curious Yellow.

Anyone have an extra Curious Yellow box they want to trade?  Very cool color.  '71 Roadrunners also came in Sassy Grass, Bahama Yellow, and Rallye Red.  Oddly, no Ultra Violet.  Also no blue for '71 Roadrunners.  Not sure why.

Some '71 Roadrunners came with white letter tires, as did some '71 Cudas.  Not sure why.  People have speculated that it was an early run and they had trouble with them, hence they stopped. Not sure if anyone knows for sure.  Based on conversations with other collectors and my own experience, I'd say less than 10% came with the RWL tires, likely closer to 5%.

'

Other colors for the '72 Duster were Sherwood Green and Basin St. Blue.  

I've always wondered why they went with the flat hood for the '72 Cudas.  You'll note that '72 Challengers have the performance hood.  These are all available colors for '72 Cudas.  Now I just need a box for the yellow car!

The '72 Roadrunners are good looking cars.  Other colors were Tor Red, Basin St. Blue (rare), and Sherwood Green (also quite rare).   Some '72 Roadrunners came in plain white boxes.